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Hypothermia (Fatalities)

Volume 984: debated on Thursday 8 May 1980

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asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the data from the Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys on deaths from hypothermia in winter.

Routine statistics based on a single cause using the International Classification of Diseases are an incomplete measure of the number of deaths involving hypothermia and therefore a special count of all death registrations which mention hypothermia—whether alone or with other causes—is carried out by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. The figures, for all ages and all circumstances in which hypothermia was mentioned on death registrations in England and Wales in recent December and March quarters, are as follows:

Quarter of registration
December quarter 1974 March quarter 1975128
March quarter 1975217
December quarter 1975150
March quarter 1976291
December quarter 1976203
March quarter 1977343
December quarter 1977138
March quarter 1978420
December quarter 1978144
March quarter 1979535*
* Provisional.
Interpretation of the trend in these figures needs to take into account the extent to which hypothermia is being clinically recognised and diagnosed more often because of publicity.